myrmepropagandistWho is 4.5 years old, has 600 daughters and 500 eggs ready to go for spring?
This queen carpenter ant. I’ve known this bug longer than some people— and I like her better.
During her first two years of life she hung around the egg chambers, but then a couple of years back her daughters decided to move all of the eggs and larvae to another log, so her log is just for her, the ants to care for her (and who whisk the eggs away) and maybe just a few dozen most recently laid eggs. She also has an extensive collection of majors hanging around especially at the entrance.
It's the queen's apartments.
She has an army of nannies for the little ones.
I would be so much more impressed with human queens if they had this many kids and a set up like this one with big beefy daughters ready to defend them.
Might even get more interested in monarchy if they could do that.
lucindacatchlove.bsky.socialWouldn't that be a momarchy? *I will see myself out*
Richard Barrell@futurebird I used to read a comic called Drowtales in which this is a thing. The main characters are all elves. Almost all the most powerful people in their expansive world are centuries old women. Their royal courts tend to center on their huge families. They are very loyal because who wouldn't take up arms to defend their mama or their grandma?